- Gunman opens fire on top politicians at a Republican baseball practice session in the US state of Virginia
- House Majority whip Steve Scalise is reported to have been hit along with a number of other people
Witnesses said the attacker was armed with a rifle and fired 50 to 100 bullets
- Police say the gunman is now in custody, contrary to reports he had died at the scene

"This morning, at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, Whip Scalise was shot in the hip. He was transported to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he is currently undergoing surgery. He is in stable condition.

If as looks probable this is confirmed as polically & ideologically motivated rather than Jihadist-motivated...

We could be at the precise moment when the madhouse that the US politico-media sphere has become is beginning to be everything but funny.

The man suspected of firing dozens of rounds into an Alexandria baseball field Wednesday morning has been identified by federal law enforcement officials as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill.

A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with Hodgkinson during their work together in Iowa on Sanders’s campaign.

Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Orear said when told by phone about the shooting.

Orear described Hodgkinson as a “quiet guy” who was “very mellow, very reserved” when they stayed overnight at the home of a Sanders’s supporter in Rock Island, Ill., after canvassing for the Vermont senator.

The shooter who fired at congressmen and aides during practice for a baseball game Wednesday morning was from Belleville.

The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, who belonged to a number of anti-Republican groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

President Donald Trump tweeted that Hodgkinson died of a gunshot.

Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home-inspection business. Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector from 1994 to 1997, when his license expired, according records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He also held a license from 2003 to 2016, but it was not renewed.

Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.

“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an ass hole you are Truly the Biggest Ass Hole We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hodgkinson is a member of a number of anti-Republican groups on Facebook, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

▪ “The Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans”

▪ “Donald Trump is not my President”

▪ “President Bernie Sanders”

▪ “Illinois Berners United to Resist Trump”

▪ “Boycott the Republican Party”

▪ “Expose Republican Fraud”

▪ “Terminate the Republican Party”

Hodgkinson took a Democratic ballot in the primary election in 2016.

In 2012, Hodgkinson took part in a protest outside the downtown Belleville post office. He said he was part of a “99%” team drawing attention to the amount of money and political power the top 1 percent of Americans acquired.

Hodgkinson has a varied arrest record in St. Clair County, for offenses such as failing to obtain electrical permits, damaging a motor vehicle, resisting a peace officer, eluding police, criminal damage to property, driving under the influence and assorted traffic offenses.

Realtor Charlene Brennan with Strano & Associates in Belleville, Ill, used Hodgkinson from time to time for home inspections.

“He used to be in construction or the building trades, and then he went into home inspections. He had been doing home inspections for several years,” she said.

There was nothing about Hodgkinson that would have pointed to Wednesday’s events.

The Democrats have been told to actively "Resist" by Democratic leadership. Celebrities have lost all sense of proportion; beheading figures of Trump, staged plays depicting a Trump-like figure being murdered. This is past grotesque. These people are truly deranged.